Chinese Green activists fight the authorities to save East Lake

Lib com are a great source of news, must link more often, now I know there are some huge ecological and land struggles in China but I don't have the direct contacts as i have in some parts of the world.

The Battle for East Lake in Wuhan, China

Submitted by husunzi on Apr 13 2010 18:37
tags: China community activity demonstrations environment

Hundreds of Wuhan citizens are fighting to save the city’s East Lake Ecological Tourist Scenic Area from plans to fill in part of the lake and develop the area commercially.

Villagers and fishery workers evicted by the development have been negotiating with the local government for compensation since December, in the face of physical assault by hired thugs. And last week hundreds of urban residents and students planned a protest march, but this was canceled after police visited the homes of organizers, students were warned against participating by school authorities, and at least one organizer had his internet cut off.

Representatives of the development company and the local government held a press conference denying that any part of the lake would be filled and claiming that the development would not hurt the area’s ecosystem, and information to the contrary has been removed from websites. But critics of the plan want to continue the fight and are presently preparing protest activities including a petition and postcards to be sent to the central government, a campaign to pitch tents and camp out at the development site, and a newsletter and internet forum to enable public discussion of the issue.

http://libcom.org/news/battle-east-lake-wuhan-13042010More here